Ok plans have changed, C2C on Tuesday Dec. 30th

[Cy Kaicener]

Are there any pictures (including the helicopter)? That would settle things.

[Zé]

But other then spending 5 freezing hours in the cold the trip was absolutly amazing. It is definatly in the top 3 hikes I have ever done, and like I said, once the snow melts Ill be back up there to finish it. Any idea what month this will be?

5 hours, including, which ended around 5- 7 pm?? What time did you start the hike? Surely ~ 6 am or so.

[stobbart]

we started at 4am and called the authorities at 5 and finally got down at 10...and for the people that think this is fake go ahead and think that, I know what happened and if you talk to the workers up there you will know thats its true. There are no pics of the helicopter because frankly after 5 hours in the cold the last thing I was thinking about was taking a picture.

[halhiker]

It's odd that there's not a story in the Desert Sun because they're pretty good at reporting all the rescued hiker stories.

It's also strange to me that the Sheriff's Dept. would send out a chopper without sending out an RMRU ground team to first secure the situation.

Usually, a rescue like this gets more press coverage.

[stobbart]

there was no place to land so they had to go back. And as far as press coverage about it I am not sure but there was another rescue later that night as well.

Its funny that people dont believe or think that I am here to get attention. I dont care about getting attention I am just responding to peoples questions and giving the conditions of the mountain.

And I will be up again at the end of April for another shot at it.

Pics will come later this week.

ALso why would anyone come to a hiking message board for san jacinto for attention when there are a million other places that I could go to get a lot more responses.

I am doing this because I am an avid hiker and am posting the information for anyone else that would like to do this hike this time of year and the conditions that the mountain is at right now.

[FIGHT ON]

we started at 4am and called the authorities at 5 and finally got down at 10...and for the people that think this is fake go ahead and think that, I know what happened and if you talk to the workers up there you will know thats its true. There are no pics of the helicopter because frankly after 5 hours in the cold the last thing I was thinking about was taking a picture.

No pictures? I thought all students had cell phones with cameras on them. I got the cheapest camera around and it takes pictures, and I'm not even a student! None? Not even one?

[KathyW]

we started at 4am and called the authorities at 5 and finally got down at 10...and for the people that think this is fake go ahead and think that, I know what happened and if you talk to the workers up there you will know thats its true. There are no pics of the helicopter because frankly after 5 hours in the cold the last thing I was thinking about was taking a picture.

Why didn't you just hike down? You would have been warmer hiking than waiting for 5 hours. Did you forget to bring headlamps or flashlights? Was someone injured or did you keep going up into an area that you were not able to descend or ascend from?

[Perry]

Anybody gone up Snow Creek this year?

April is usually the best time. Winter has avalanches. That's why the snow comes down to 5,500' in that chute.

[Perry]

I got a confirmation that this is real. My guess is that hypothermia affected thinking. I went for a run this evening. It took the edge off, and I deleted a couple of my posts. There's no need to make you feel any worse.

I do have a practical question if you don't mind. Did the red text and photos under point 4 make sense?
http://www.geocities.com/cactus2clouds/skyline.html
Can I do anything to make it more useful?

[AlanK]

I had no strong feeling on the issue of whether or not the report under discussion was real. I'm glad that got sorted out and I'm more glad that it turned out well. There are a number of lessons to be learned here and I'm sure they will get discussed to death.

My $0.02 worth: It should have been clear long before 5 PM that reaching the tram before dark was very unlikely. That was the time to head down. Even with, say, a 2 PM turn-around -- after 10 hours on the trail! - the hike back down was going to take until after dark. I'd say that to continue beyond that point was a big mistake that resulted in significant risk.

There was some good advice given here long before the hike. The best advice was to try some other significant local winter hikes first. If nothing else, it would have made the judgement inplied in my previous paragraph a whole lot easier.

Again, I'm glad that everyone is safe and hope that future hikes turn out better.